Nazi Army 10 Pfennig - Museum Gallery

Military Coinage - WWII, circulated only in occupied territory. While the mintage figures are high these are fairly scarce and even scarcer in decent condition. I have only seen 'A' [Berlin] mints for these but be sure to see Zantetsuken's example here in this section of the Moneta Museum! Very Rare, his. These are hard to photograph but this example is about as nice as I have seen.
When the Wehrmacht entered any foreign country, it issued decrees making this money legal tender at a specified exchange rate with the indigenous currency at a ratio, usually the pre-invasion rate, between reichmarks and the local money thus it was tied to the Reichsmark. German troops received their pay in Reichs Kredit Kassen scheine and since the currency was
legal tender only in the occupied areas, the soldiers had to spend their money there or forfeit its value on returning to Germany. By using these non-convertible occupation currencies the Germans effectively transferred the total cost of the occupation to the defeated country!
With the German annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland portion of Czechoslovakia in 1938, these territories were incorporated into the German Reich and the Reichsmark was made legal tender in these territories by decrees of March 17, 1938 (Order for the transfer of the Austrian National Bank to the Reichsbank, Reichsgesetz blatt 1938, 1, No 27, p. 254) and October 10, 1938 (Decree regarding the introduction of Reichsmark Currency into Sudeten German Territories, Bank for International Settlements, Doc. L. D. 36).
In most cases decrees regulated the rate of exchange between the occupied territory and the German Reichs bank. For example, a decree dated September 11, 1939 established the exchange ratio between the Reichsmark and the Polish Zloty at 1 (one) Zloty = 50 (fifty) Reichs¬pfennig.
However, in order to control military spending and inflation a series of legal decrees in Berlin established the operation of a military central banking institution called "Reichs Kredit Kassen". This organization issued both coins and paper currency legal tender at first only in Poland, later expanded to other occupied territories. Two zinc coins, a 5 and 10 pfennig, were issued to the military forces as mentioned above. These coins, with the German eagle on one side and swastika and REICHS KREDIT KASSEN on the other, were unique as no other German issue is holed (except German East Africa).
This first appeared in Poland in 1939, backed partly by loans and partly by occupation cost accounts. In 1940 it appeared in Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium and France; in 1941 in the Balkans and in Russia; thus for a while it was legal tender throughout German-occupied Europe.